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On 20 August, the 2nd Eastern District Military Court sentenced 57-year-old Olga Ogarkova, a resident of Chita (a city in eastern Siberia), to five years in prison over anti-war comments. This was reported by “Otkrytoye Prostranstvo” (“Open Space”).
Ogarkova was convicted under the article on incitement to terrorism on the internet (Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Russian Criminal Code). She pleaded guilty.
The prosecutor had sought a six-year prison sentence. She was represented by a state-appointed lawyer.
According to investigators, from December 2022 to February 2024, she posted messages in one of the messengers “calling for attacks on the lives of senior officials, as well as justifying missile strikes on the Crimean Bridge,” using “disrespectful language towards her compatriots and fellow Zabaykalsky residents, wishing victory to the Ukrainian armed forces, and supporting sabotage and terrorist attacks carried out on Russian territory.”
The court considered as an aggravating factor the refusal to grant a pension which Ogarkova received in 2024. The judge found that she posted her comments out of “political hatred and enmity, expressed in resentment and anger towards the authorities due to the pension refusal.”
The case reached the court on 1 August. It was resolved in a single hearing.
According to “Otkrytoye Prostranstvo,” Ogarkova had worked since the age of 13. She studied to become a railway engineer, but had to leave her studies to look after her child following an accident. In recent years, the Chita resident worked as a care worker, despite having health problems. Ogarkova told human rights defenders that she can stand only briefly or sit upright, and that cleaning and bending can leave her immobilised. Sometimes, she cannot go to the shop on her own.
Before sentencing, Ogarkova was under travel restrictions.
You can support her by sending a letter through the “F-Pismo” or “Zonatelecom” services:
Detention Centre No. 1, Federal Penitentiary Service for Zabaykalsky Krai, 1 Ingodinskaya St., Chita, Zabaykalsky Krai, Russia, 672010,
Ogarkova Olga Albertovna, born 1968